The joke:
That pop culture phenomenon “Beavis and Butt-Head” is returning to television. You’ll be able to see them on September 29 at the first presidential debate.
How I wrote it:
I focused on this news item because I thought I could get a laugh out of referring to a couple of unexpected people as “Beavis” and “Butt-Head.” That is, I decided to use my Punch Line Maker #2: Link the topic to pop culture.
The animated characters mentioned in the topic, Beavis and Butt-Head, are associated with “dumb,” so I brainstormed pairs of pop culture figures who I believed most people would accept as being “dumb.” The presidential race is in full swing, which is why I thought of President Trump and Joe Biden.
Would most people go along with with my implication that Trump and Biden are dumb? I decided yes, because I read that many voters have concerns about the cognitive ability of both candidates. So Biden and Trump became my laugh triggers.
My Joke Maximizer #11 is “Don’t be too on-the-nose,” so I didn’t want to follow the topic with something like “You know them better as Donald Trump and Joe Biden.” Instead, I identified the candidates indirectly by referring to “the first presidential debate.”
I also helped the joke by writing an angle that flows smoothly from the topic. The topic is about the show returning to television, so it’s natural for the angle to talk about when that will happen. Because my angle makes the lead-up to the punch line sound straightforward, the surprising turn taken by the insulting punch line is heightened and the joke is funnier.